Final Predictions - Best Animated Feature

Nominees
How to Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

Toy Story 3

Should Win/Will Win - Toy Story 3

Commentary - I was absolutely thrilled when The Illusionist beat out the less-than-stellar, yet more popular choices of Megamind and Despicable Me for the third slot in this year's Animated Feature race. Despite that I also know that it has absolutely no chance of winning this award, so it should be happy with the nomination itself. This is really a two-dog race between How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3. In some circles, HTTYD is definitely a potential spoiler, as it was a huge box-office success, had incredible reviews, and swept the Annie Awards just a week or so ago. However, despite Annie success (it didn't even campaign for it), TS3 also has awesome reviews, actually it has the best reviews of the year of any film, the biggest box office total of any film, and has the distinction of being nominated in some major categories including Best Adapted Screenplay, and of course Best Picture. Both are incredible films, but the film of the year truly is Toy Story 3, and Oscar glory is on its way.